Yo ho ho and a barrel of rum: North Hampton startup making drink the old-fashioned way

By KATIE FIEGENBAUMSpecial to the Democrat

Saturday, January 5, 2013

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Ryan McBride/Staff photographer
Heather Hughes, owner of Sea Hagg Distillery, tests a recent batch of rum that has yet to be finished and bottled Thursday afternoon at the startup distillery in North Hampton.

NORTH HAMPTON — Starting a business brewing artisan rum in an industrial park in North Hampton with little previous experience may sound like a crazy idea. However, Heather Hughes started her own microdistillery, Sea Hagg Distillery, in North Hampton a little over six months ago and business is still going strong.

“We're so overwhelmed by the local support,” partner Ron Vars said.

Sea Hagg Distillery was honored with an award in December because of its success as a local business. The award was made from money Sam's Club donated to SCORE, a nonprofit unit of the U.S. Small Business Administration that provides counseling and classes for local small businesses using the talents of current and retired business executives.

Hughes first heard about SCORE from a friend when she was throwing around ideas about the venture. She was assigned two counselors, Martin Klenke and Randy Holt, successful business executives who helped her set goals and make plans.

“SCORE was fabulous!” she said. “Coming from a science background, I didn't have much business experience and knew nothing about profit loss or anything like that.”

The microdistillery received a $1,000 gift card to Sam's Club and Hughes will embark on all-expenses-paid trip to a SCORE conference in Dallas at the end of January, where two winners from each state and the District of Columbia will attend workshops about growing their business.

“It will be really interesting and a weird conglomerate of people,” she said.

The other winner from New Hampshire is Inkprint Letterpress, a stationary and letterpress printing business in Manchester.

Hughes' SCORE counselors Klenke and Holt nominated Sea Hagg Distillery as a small business success story right after the distillery's opening last summer.

“Heather was one of our best students because she took the advice to heart, jumped into the numbers and worked at it really hard until she had her plan,” Klenke said in a Jan. 3 press release.

Hughes came up with the idea while drinking rum on a beach in the Caribbean. Vars had previously dabbled in home brewing and they were both self-described “foodies” who loved rum. They both grew up, studied, and live in New Hampshire.

At first, Hughes wanted to bring Caribbean rum to the Seacoast and blend it. However, through her research she discovered rum used to be New England's largest industry and there is a great history of rum distilleries in the area. Hughes wanted to bring back that tradition and, after almost a year of research and brainstorming, saw the market was ripe for a microdistillery.

Fortunately, Hughes had some money saved up and was able to quit her job to plan and start Sea Hagg Distillery full time. She hired consultants to be a sounding board for her ideas, as she comes from a pre-med background. It was helpful Vars was a business major. They moved into their 135 Lafayette Road location in February last year, received their license in April and opened on July 4.

“It's our independence day!” Vars jokes.

Hughes and Vars, who also are often helped by friends and family, use blackstrap molasses from a small co-op in Louisiana, which they ferment in repurposed dairy tanks for 36 hours and then distill in a copper alembic still custom-made in Portugal.

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Ryan McBride/Staff photographer
The entrance of Sea Hagg Distillery in North Hampton is easy see with this custom-made sign.

“This is very traditional — we're trying to make rum like rum was made here up until prohibition,” Hughes said.

The liquid is then cut with local spring water and aged in fresh oak barrels, which Hughes says is unique to New England rums. She describes making rum as an art, the taste depending on where the trees are grown and how long the rum is aged, and says no batch tastes exactly the same. After aging, the liquid is hand-bottled and artfully sealed with wax to be sold in the storefront, directly in front of their brewing room.

Sea Hagg currently offers amber, white, blueberry and peach rum. Hughes and Vars experiment with eau de vies, brandy, and future seasonal flavors in the large room behind their homey storefront, which is decorated with paintings by Exeter artist Rose Bryant.

“We want to have something fun and new every couple months, which gives us a lot of room for creativity,” Hughes said.

Sea Hagg Distillery strives to be part of a “drink local” movement and tries to use as many local ingredients as possible. The peaches come from Applecrest Farm Orchards in Hampton Falls and the blueberries come from growers in Maine.

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Ryan McBride/Staff photographer
Ron Vars, partner in Sea Hagg Distillery in North Hampton, talks about the specific barrels they use for production.

“It feels good to make something locally and interact with the restaurant industry and farmers,” Hughes said.

Vars, an apple connoisseur, spent a while searching for local varieties of heirloom apples to use. However, microdistilleries don't need perfectly healthy apples to make their product.

“The apples we use are damaged and dropped, so it's a real income opportunity for the farmers and orchards,” he said.

By next year, they hope to have all their barrels made in New Hampshire, but it just isn't possible to buy some items locally at this time.

“I'd love to do 100 percent local, but within reason,” Hughes said. “There's a limit on what I can get — I can't get glass bottles made in New Hampshire and though our shirts are screen-printed locally, the garment itself is made in China.”

The hardest part of running a microdistillery is all the paperwork for the state and the Alcohol Tax and Trade Bureau, according to Hughes. She says a lot of rules stemming from prohibition make it hard to do business in the state, especially in an industry dominated by “the big boys.” However, the New Hampshire Liquor Commission has been supportive.

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In top photo, Ron Vars, partner in Sea Hagg Distillery in North
Hampton, checks the temperature of the rum Thursday. At left, Heather Hughes, owner of Sea Hagg Distillery, tests a recent batch of rum that has yet to be finished and bottled.
Ryan McBride/
Staff photographer

“For a small startups, all the rules are a huge pain! However, they realize this and I hope this legislative period we'll see change in the laws,” she said.

A fifth of rum goes for $28, but business is booming in the small shop and the peach and amber rum are currently for sale in state liquor stores. Sea Hagg is working with a few restaurants to make way for distribution, but really cannot support the huge volume needed for that endeavor — not yet, at least.

According to Hughes, many people come in the shop both to taste, buy, as well as tour the place. Many express an interest either in learning more or offer their own advice.